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Speaking to journalists this morning about the planned change, which will put 170 jobs at risk, Dye also was tight lipped about whether the company was still on track to hit its target of £3bn GWP by the end of 2018.

Key points

Direct home and motor accounted for less than 4% of £2.2bn GWP in 2015

Allianz’s ability to hit its £3bn GWP target by 2018 unclear

Direct home and motor policy count had shrunk to 187,000 from 250,000

Dye played down the size of the direct home and motor business, saying that it made up less than 4% of Allianz UK’s 2015 GWP of £2.2bn and less than 2% of GWP as of the first quarter of 2016.

He also said that the parts of the business that were highlighted as growing profitably at the end of 2015, such as pet insurance, legal expenses, motor fleet and engineering, had continued to do so, which could help fill the hole left by direct motor and home.

He said: You are going to see that the parts of our business that you’d expect to perform strongly are performing strongly. The other 90% of the business is in very good shape and we will be using the changes we have made as a platform to make that bigger and better.

But he was non-committal about the company’s ability to hit the £3bn target. He said: “Our aspiration as a business is still to grow profitably in the UK market. Our direct initiative was one way that we were seeking to do that and that is now clearly something we are proposing to stop. Any number of things could happen in that period.”

Dye also revealed that he direct home and motor business had been shrinking, which was part of the reason for the planned exit. The policy count is now at 187,000, made up of 129,000 direct motor policies and 58,000 direct home policies. This compared with 250,000 at the end of 2014.

Allianz’s plan to close its direct home and motor business depends on how the consultation with affected employees and the Unite union go. The consultation is expected to complete on 1 July.

Dye said: “Until that consultation process is completed there is still the possibility that we could go a different way. It is a proposal until such time as the consultation process is finished and we draw our final conclusions.”